Blueberry-Blackberry Cupcake with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

When I think blueberries in baked goods, I immediately picture those ugly blueberry muffins with exploding berries and goo everywhere. Sure, they’re tasty and smell fabulous but they’re not always a pretty sight.

Now, here’s a baked blueberry good that I can’t help but gawk at.

These are so pretty and they’re perfect for weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays- really any occasion. I made them for breakfast.

The cake isn’t overly sweet and complements the tart cream cheese very well. The cake holds up great, it is moist and has a tight crumb.

I love the natural violet color in the frosting attained from using freeze dried blueberries. You can easily swap in other freeze dried fruits (Trader Joe’s has banana, pineapple, and strawberry) to make rich colored frosting and batters without using food colorings.

These cupcakes remind me of the country side and picnics and lazy summer days. Blueberry-Blackberry Cupcakes would go well with some nice cheese, a couple slices of baguette and a bottle of wine. Oh, I miss Napa and Sonoma.

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Comments

These look so stunning, your tip on the freeze dried fruit is much appreciated. This is a great way to showcase the bounty of fresh berries we have this summer. I have bookmarked this recipe. So glad you posted this-Buzz Buzz!

@ Kellypea- Lemon oil gives it a nice kick. I’ve tried using lemon zest before and I can barely taste it. Thanks for commenting!

@ Red2282- I was able to find freeze dried blueberries at Trader Joe’s and Target. If you don’t have those near you, I suggest amazon.com. As for the lemon oil, I bought it at Williams Sonoma. You could also substitute lemon zest.

Absolutely stunning photos,And now i must to make those amazing looking cupcakes, or I will never have a good night sleep again! I will be on the hunt for freeze dried blueberries, stopping by at TJ’s and Target this weekend :)Thank you for a delicious inspiration !

@Esther- Thanks! You can get cream cheese at any supermarket. Its in the dairy section near the yogurt and sour cream. Be sure to get the regular cream cheese because the low fat and reduced fat cream cheese don’t work as well in frostings. You can find vanilla paste at speciality stores like Williams-Sonoma and Sur la Table, or you can substitute vanilla extract.

I found freeze dried fruits at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Markets, and surprisingly at Target.

Anonymous

Thanks for posting this. I am getting married next May and want a cupcake wedding cake; however, the one I wanted was so elaborate and quite costly. I thought I would make my own but didn’t know what sort of decorations to do. It’s a wedding in the country and I think these would be beautiful, especially since my colors are blush pink and wisteria!!

One question: I see you have piped the frosting, so I assume the recipe will be sturdy enough to hold up? Or should I add a little more confectioner’s sugar? Not sure how many cupcakes your recipe yields, but I need approximately 50 and was wondering if you might know how to increase this to yield this many? Thanks for your help! :)

Congrats! That’s so exciting! The recipe makes one dozen cupcakes. Yes, the frosting should be firm enough. If not, you can add more confectioners’ sugar, but it might make the frosting a bit too sweet. You can multiply the original recipe by 5 to get 60 cupcakes. That will allow you to have a little extra for snacking. :)

Just made these and they were described by my father as “Better than steak!”, which never happens.Definite 10/10. I had to work hard though; I don’t own a balance so I had to sort of guess around the berry measurements. If anyone else finds themselves in this predicament, I have some advice:freeze dried blueberries were NOT easy to find at my local Target (had to fish the blueberries out of a mixed berries bag), definitely buy them from WF or TJs to save time. 17 grams of dried blueberries is about a 1/3 dry cup. 7.5 g of flour is a dry cup minus 2 Tbsp. 3oz buttermilk is just over the 1/3 cup line, and if you fail at straining the blue/black berry puree as I did, throwing a big hand full of each into a blender and just dealing with the seeds doesn’t affect the texture too much. Out of curiosity though, how does one strain the thick mucus that is berry puree?

I’m sorry to hear you had a difficult time finding the freeze dried berries. Did you use fresh blue/blackberries for the puree? I just a regular fine mesh strainer for the puree and it worked fine. You could also use cheesecloth and squeeze out the puree.

I love these cupcakes! They are to cute!!! I made them for my birthday ball. Although I used a lemon cake mix for the cake, I didn’t have time, or room in the kitchen to make cupcakes from scratch. But I used the frosting recipe, and decorated them similar. I could not find the freeze dried blue berries at a reasonable price (I had a tight budget and 75 cupcakes were adding up) so I used just dried blueberries, and pureed them until they were smooth. It worked great! I didn’t get the greatest pictures, but here is one of me and my friends putting the icing on at the last minute, in 90 degree weather, it was melting a little, but considering the heat, they held up well.http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d34/Tobias13/2012-09-30_16-19-43_553_zps3d9af85c.jpg

Anonymous

I bought mine at Trader’s Joes. They are also sold at Whole Foods Markets and sometimes I can find them at Target. Freeze dried blueberries are completely dried and free of any moisture. Its not like regular dried fruit that is soft and full of water. When freeze dried blueberries are crushed, they turn into a powder that is a wonderful color enhancer.

Anonymous

Just made a double recipe of these and decorated with the berries and royal icing flowers. Had to substitute vanilla extract for paste and lemon zest for oil, but they are delicious!! I don’t usually eat desserts that don’t involve chocolate, but these are amazing!
Freeze-dried fruit is new to me — can’t wait to try it with others recipes.
Thank for posting this recipe!

Maryanne

Thanks, Ellie! Having fun making them! Piping just takes practice, you’ll have it down in no time :)

Rachele

These look wonderful and i would love to make them. A question the recipe says “7 1/2 oz all purpose flour” is that 7 and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour or 7i/2 ounces– meaning just under a cup??

Maryanne

Hi Rachele, the 7.5 ounces is the weight of the flour. I used a scale to measure all the ingredients for this recipe. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, there are plenty of websites that will tell you the conversion weight of flour to cups. Hope that helps!

Mireya

Hi, I made these last week and they were THE BOMB!! Best cupcakes I have ever had :) I have one question though..I want to make strawberry cupcakes. Can I use the same recipe just substituting the blue/blackberries with strawberries or any other freeze dried fruit and I assume minus the lemon oil?

Rachel

Hi Rachel, I actually made those mini blossoms and daises using a 50/50 blend of homemade fondant and store-bought fondant. I used these two cutters: http://amzn.to/1m0POPx and http://amzn.to/1jHFfPX
And the center of the flowers are sugar pearls.

Lindsey

I have the freeze dried blueberry powder pre packaged about how much of the actual powder would I use?

Haley

Hi Haley! Unfortunately you cannot substitute dried blueberries for freeze dried blueberries. Freeze dried blueberries are 99% moisture free, whereas dried blueberries still have a ton of moisture. The results will not be the same.

Jennifer

i live in Hawaii and there is no Trader Joes or Whole Foods at least on my island , so don’t know if I will be able to find some of the ingredients. It’s harder to find things here like blackberries, can you use frozen? What is vanilla paste and could I substitute it? What is lemon oil and can I substitute it? I hesitate t o purchase something especially if it’s expensive and I would not be using it again. If it’s something I can buy in the bulk section no problem. Don’t know if they carry freeze dried blueberries here, will have to check. Is the freeze dried blueberries just for the color aspect of it? If so I wouldn’t need to use it, thought I would like the frosting to be purple as its my favorite color and the color is part of the appeal for these. Anyway can convert the measurements for me ? I’m not good at math, besides have limited access to Internet, none at home, have to go to library.
Mahalo🌈🏝💜

Siobhan

Tried these today- I had all the ingredients- they turned out beautifully. I never would have thought to take the freeze dried berries and process them. In the frosting I added the berries to the butter and it incorporated well- got the beautiful color and taste. Thank you!

Rohini

Terri

These cupcakes of yours look truly amazing, the color purple hue of the frosting, blends so nicely with the dark blueberries on top and to package it up you have selected the perfect little paper cup holders with that little red piping on the edge.. I LOVE cupcakes and cannot wait to make these, “with some help”..
May I ask you where you found your cupcake holders with the red trim? Thank you so much!!

red

This recipe uses “freeze dried blueberries” not dried blueberries. The freeze dried blueberries add natural color to the cupcakes. If you cannot find it, simply omit it. However, the resulting cupcakes and frosting will not have the same color as the photos here.

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